Certification modifications enhance regulatory weight of program

July 15, 2014

Recent modifications to the NAID AAA Certification Program that align the program with current data protection regulations are now in effect and available to members and/or their customers. Those changes include the following:

Access Employee Training Program (AETP): The employee training program is effective immediately to all new certifications and certification renewals. To comply, all access employees must successfully complete the NAID AETP. The computer-based training is available to NAID members for a one-time fee of $79.95. The program is administered, tracked, and validated by the member and will be verified during announced and unannounced audits. The training and subsequent tests are designed to ensure that access employees understand their responsibilities under the NAID certification program as well as the data breach notification requirements of current data protection regulations. Members may request advanced approval of similar training methods or programs as alternative.

Audit Reports Available: Effective immediately, authorized representatives from NAID certified organizations are able to request a copy of their most recent audit report at no charge. Alternatively, certified locations may authorize NAID to provide the audit report directly to the customer or set up a program for the customer to receive every future audit report automatically. It is anticipated that many customer will request the latter alternative from their service provider as a way to validating their ongoing due diligence.

By providing audit reports to clients, NAID certified locations are effectively validating the risk assessment requirement under HIPAA/HITECH. Taken together, the addition of the training program requirement and the validation of the risk assessment, NAID certification now fully verifies a service provider’s compliance with all relevant data protection regulatory compliance.

Click here to download the NAID AETP Order Form and Licensing Agreement.

NAID certified members, click here to request a copy of your most recent audit report. Customers seeking a copy of their service provider’s most recent audit report should contact the service provider first so they can authorize the transmittal.